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That's the message I'm getting when trying to empty the trash. To my knowledge, almost all of this is just old backups from an external drive, even though the message seems to imply I've been rooting around (no pun intended) in operating system files.

error-message

Any clue what this message means?

bmike
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Justin Searls
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    Please show us the output of xattr ~/.Trash/* ~/.Trash/.* | grep rootless – bot47 Nov 05 '16 at 16:59
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    Wow - well done if you managed to perform that action. On the surface it means your protection is messed up since you shouldn't be able to get anything SIP protected in the trash the first place. What are you looking for -instructions to disable SIP? How to look in trash for extended attributes? Something else like confirmation that this is just a bug? – bmike Nov 05 '16 at 17:47
  • I have to correct myself and ask for the output of xattr -r ~/.Trash/* ~/.Trash/.* | grep rootless. – bot47 Nov 05 '16 at 18:25
  • use "sudo rmdir [path of the directory in trash]" in terminal if it's a directory or use "sudo rm -r [path of the file in trash]" if it's a file – Harcker Nov 05 '16 at 20:55
  • Old backups are protected by SIP. Those are the files being mentioned. – NoahL Nov 06 '16 at 04:19
  • I have exactly the same problem- and repossess from others confirm the same source. I have tried to delete a stalled TimeMachine Backup file .inprogress (see screenshot)enter image description here Suggestions I am about to try - Make sure no other backups are also going to the same destination - Disconnect/Eject from the drive in Finder - Boot in safe mode and see if I can delete the file from trash that way. – Krowdrah Nov 06 '16 at 12:14
  • I ran into this trying to delete old backups. I resolved this by going into Trash, right-click Backups.db, Put back. Then following: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/39287/how-can-i-manually-delete-old-backups-to-free-space-for-time-machine (sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/<drive>/Backups.backupdb/<backup>) Edit: Posted as answer – jpillora Jan 17 '17 at 17:21

2 Answers2

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sudo rm -rf /Volumes/ExternalDrive/.Trashes/

Replace "ExternalDrive" with the actual name of your external drive. Be careful using the rm command and make sure the path to the External Drive is correct.

Maximus
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I ran into this trying to delete old backups. I resolved this by going into Trash, right-click Backups.db, Put back. Then following: How can I manually delete old backups to free space for Time Machine? (sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/<drive>/Backups.backupdb/<backup>)

Community
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jpillora
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